Kathleen Norris provides a comprehensive look into the significance of Dakota in her life as a spiritual topography, both defending and questioning her own motives for staying in such a sparsely-populated area, in The Beautiful Places. She finds conviction in the Benedictine monks which have made Dakota their permanent home, despite the instability which is characteristic of the land, "We have become as indigenous as the cottonwood trees...If you take us somewhere else, we lose our character, our history- maybe our soul." While other inhabitants of the Great Plain lose faith in their motives to stay in such a grossly underpopulated area, the monks retain a symbiotic relationship which their environment, steadfastly remaining in the land which supports them. She also sees the beauty in appreciating the subtlety within nature, as her heart steers her away from the suffocating atmosphere of cities like New York City, instead favoring the force that is nature with its ethereal elusiveness. She has a confidence and resourcefulness which has allowed to her stay in Dakota, which are necessary traits to have in order to persevere in a town where its majority has left. I think in some ways this takes a simplistic, environmental, almost transcendental view about the world, if even established indirectly. She has a patience and tranquility which allows her to thrive in an area with seemingly low levels of stimuli; she cannot escape the nature that surrounds her by flocking to humanity and its groupings, and yet she feels a sense of calm and comfort. This is the essence of a environmentally sound being, and yet she makes no reference to priding herself on being green. Precisely because she is so effortless, and precisely because she has faith in the Great Plains, with its fluctuations and its angels and its Benedictine monks, Kathleen Norris may just be one with the environment.
Julie
Norris’s affinity for the vast and rugged places on Earth reflects her passion for the purity of character. One’s ability to “stick it out” in adverse conditions reveals true spirit. Out on the plains in Dakota there is nothing to shield you from the hailstorms, or the financial ruin that often follows suit. Yet, its not the challenge of life on the edge that attracts Norris, but the spiritual attachment to the land. The environment around her, just like the rest of us, in essence, forges her identity. I found it interesting that she described her life in Dakota as being akin to that of a monk in a monetary isolated from the fulfillment of temptation. She, like the monks, is not only content to stay where they are but is devoted to the life that she has committed to. It is all to easy to be persuaded to pick up and follow fortune, but there are still those who remain faithful to their intended purpose even if could potentially spell financial hardship. I also spent a long time pondering the part where she explains that it is specifically because there are so few people in the region where she lives that she is able to learn more and see more deeply into the human condition. When there are few people around it becomes less difficult to analyze the actions of those around you. I truly loved how she corrected the misconception that the plains are empty. Coming from a rural community in Kansas, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told, “How do you live out there…there’s like nothing!” It may sound trite, but the only way someone could possibly think that is if they aren’t looking for anything. In fact, there is quite a great deal more going on within the expansive fields of grass than the congested streets of the cities. I’m not saying that there is not spiritual merit to the cities. I am saying it depends upon the lens through which you choose to look on whether or not you will see beauty.
ReplyDelete- Alex Leeds
Norris’s work was very interesting to me. The narrator moved from bustling New York City to barren Lemmon, South Dakota. Out of duty, the poet and her husband relocate but it is obvious she is intrigued by the change of pace. She describes the Dakotas as “The Plains” and admits that they are not easy to live on. The weather is harsh, the opportunities are minimal, and the population is homogenous. Nevertheless, she brings her storytelling to the Dakotas to help them survive, while also helping herself survive. Living in the “next-year” country, the narrator completes her spiritual geography by studying in contrasts; first in, Honolulu, then New York City and finally Lemmon. For her, living in a place such as Lemmon helped complete her as a writer and as a person. In addition, I liked how she compared herself to the way monks separate themselves from flashy surroundings so that they can focus on their inner beings. Overall, the narrator finds herself while on the Plains.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this reading especially because I am one of those people that Norris was referencing that doesn't understand the appeal of the Dakota's. However, after reading this excerpt I began to understand the beauty of this deserted land. As Alex said the absence of human life allows Norris an insight into the human condition. By living in solidarity and silence she can focus in on things she had never notice before such as, "the way the snowy owl sits on a fencepost, or a golden eagle hunts...and above all, one notices the quiet, the near-absence of human noise." I don't think we every really understand how loud the world is in which we live. We are constantly surrounded by noise whether it is a cough, a door closing, the hum of a computer, or a siren, we never experience total silence. However, in the Dakota's Norris does. This absence of noise also includes the absence of chaos. We have become so advanced as a world that we cannot go a day without email or phones or cars or star bucks and this complexity makes it harder to see the beauty of the world. In the Dakota's Norris is closer to creation, and closer to God. She is far from complexity and it is only in simplicity that we can truly understand and take in the beauty of our environment.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to Andrea's comment that she is one of those people that don't see the appeal of the Dakota's. I, too prefer city life to the country. I think that Norris made a valid point however, that people in the current day really have no appreciation of their surroundings. She states that most people are "bored: they turn up their car stereo, count the miles to civilization, and look away." It's sad, but true. I can be blamed as doing this from time to time. People are so concerned with getting places and doing things, we don't take time anymore to just stop for a second and look around. I enjoyed Noriss' comparison of monks as the counterculture to our "fast-paced, anything-for-a-buck society." She makes a valid statement that even the people that are supposed to be caring about nature and the environment, like farmers, are becoming just like the rest of us everyday consumers. They are turning their lives into "agribusiness". The way that our society is developing with all the new discoveries and technolodical advances, it is easy to get caught up in the vicious cycle of materialistic happiness. It is refreshing to read articles like Noriss' to get a reminder of what really matters and how beautiful our world is and how much more we should appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteReading about Katherine Norris’ connection with South Dakota surprised me. I would have expected for her to have a connection with a big city like New York or Chicago for instance, places that people easily fall in love with on account of there is always so much going on. Rather than pick a big city though, I’m glad that Norris decided to write about South Dakota—a place I feel that many don’t often stop and think about. What I noticed however was the fact that Norris talked a lot about why many people don’t often think of the Dakotas. She discussed “the so-called emptiness of the Plains” and she seemed to have focused a great deal on what people do not seem to see in the Plains; however, I would have preferred for her to discuss more what attracted her to the Dakotas in the first place and what convinced her to extend her stay beyond a few years. At the conclusion of the text, Norris says the following, “As it turns out, the Plains have been essential not only for my growth as a writer, they have formed me spiritually. I would even say they have made me a human being.” I wish that she had elaborated on how they made her a human being. It can be inferred that the Plains had a large affect on her, but she never clarifies or gives any sort of explanation of what it was exactly about the Plains that made such an impact. She even cuts herself off by saying at the end that when it came to spiritual geography, she had deep affinities with Hawaii, New York City, and South Dakota. I like that the author feels so connected with the Plains, I find it both refreshing and unique, I just wish that I had a better understand as to why.
ReplyDeleteI wish everybody could have the spiritual epiphany that Kathleen Norris described in The Beautiful Places. Like Shelley said, people today really don’t have a sense of appreciation for their surroundings. This mindset is not only a sad reality of most Americans but it is also dangerous as well. Without an understanding of the land in this country, or the places most untouched by man, how are we as a society supposed to protect them in the long term? I really liked the sense of community Norris emphasized within these small rural communities. Their identity is found in their long-standing relationships over generations. She quotes another author by the name of Kardong who writes, “If you take us somewhere else, we lose our character, our history --- maybe our soul”. Kardong finds that the soul is developed by where you grow up and your identity is developed there. In a place like the plains a person can focus on their “inner geography”. This “inner geography” being a spiritual awareness of your soul that you may not be able to hear when surrounded by civilization. I think everybody can attest to a time in which they have marveled at the sheer magnitude of nature in a very spiritual way and despite specific beliefs or religions this sense is universal.
ReplyDeleteAfter I read those pages, I think it is not bad to live in a small town. The way author thinking about spiritual geography is the place where author has wrestled her story out of the circumstances of landscape and inheritance. I think that landscape means a lot to author, which is not just inheritance because the author says: “ my move was one that took me deep into the meaning of inheritance, as I had to try to fit myself into a complex network of long-established relationships.” She might begin to get used to the environment at that time. I think after her moved to that place, she started to be respectful for the nature. After I read the part about publishing articles, I found out that people who live in the city care more about the positions and how wealthy they are. I sort of agree with that we have to do that in order to survive in our society, but I do not think that we should treat everyone like that. I really love the small town life because there is less uncomfortableness. I have a question that what does author mean by open hearts and closed minds which are really confusing. We can realize that author already put herself in that kind of life, since she says:“if you take us somewhere else, we lose our character, our history-maybe our soul.”I really think that the author’s meaning is beyond the barren landscape.
ReplyDeleteI find Kathleen Norris' story very comforting. I moved when I was little and it was one of the hardest transitions of my life. I had to adapt to new friends, a new neighborhood, and a new home. Similarly to Norris, I too found a deep a passion for my new home. However, I was surprised how she connected more to her new home in Dakota than her previous life in New York. I think her story just goes to shows that home is a feeling, not a particular place.
ReplyDeleteBefore I even started reading Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, I was intrigued. I took a human geography course last semester and found it really interesting to think about how the places people grow up in, or the places people choose to live, influence them in various ways. I agree with the first post in that living in Dakota allows a person to purify their character and take an introspective approach to life. I liked how Norris brought up the fact that most people view the Dakotas as a place to drive through as quickly as possible to get to their destination. Why? Because the Dakotas are "devoid of human presence". This does not mean, however, that they are empty. Norris argues that moving here enriches the human spirit. It allowed her to define who she was and mold herself to the long established relationships that exist in the Dakotas.
ReplyDeleteNorris also notes that religion seems to respond to the challenges of living in the Dakotas. The Dakotas are often unstable due to the boom and bust economy and the constant emigration of its citizens. Because of this, the Benedictines put emphasis on stability and community. They recognize that "we are quite powerless over circumstance" yet they are able to articulate why it is that people remain in the Dakotas. They believe that the rapid and cut throat pace of society today is something that should be avoided.
Ultimately, this slow paced life style gives Norris the chance to grow spiritually and she recognizes that, "Everything that seems empty is full of the angels of God". She has fully come to appreciate the Dakotas for their starkness.
I agree with most of the posts, that Norris has captured something unique in a place that usually doesn't come to mind when brainstorming favorite places. I have to disagree however that she has planted a seed of desire within me to go to South Dakota. I think that the places she was comparing were too opposite from one another. Going from one of the largest cities in the U.S. to one of the most desolate expanses in the U.S. has too much shock value. I think that there are many, much more breathtaking and beautiful places than South Dakota. I do think that Norris was however, able to capture a personal feeling for herself of childhood memory. I especially liked the passage where she was quoting Benedictine about being powerless over circumstance.
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ReplyDeleteI found Kathleen Norris’ spiritual connection between herself and her environment extremely enlightening. It was refreshing to hear about someone taking a deeper look at their roots and discovering who they are. While Norris makes it clear that she feels the deepest connection with Dakota, I also like how she states that she “[has a deep affinity]” for Hawaii (where she spent her adolescent years) and New York (where she lived after college). I think it is important to note this fact because I feel like many may read this text and, in reflection, feel unappreciative of nature for passing through regions such as Dakota and rushing to the city. While I do think it is important to give different places that we are not necessarily used to a deeper look, I think everyone finds themselves and their spirituality differently. A city may just be where a person’s spiritual geography lies.
ReplyDeleteAs Jon mentioned in this post, to me the most interesting connection to class I saw in this article was Norris' idea of a spiritual awareness being discovered in the Plains. By taking away the distraction and interference of human crowding found in the city, Dakota allows its inhabitant to succumb to the environment. Through the booms and busts of agriculture and farm life, one can assume no role but powerless to the actions of nature. Norris shows that this can result in two things. At first, it forms spirituality, as "survival is the only blessing that... the Plain bestow" (6). Essentially, because one loses most sense of power in such desolate geography, he or she is forced to see something larger having said power. Second, religion such as Benedictine provides the stability that the mentioned booms and busts fail to. Both of these results together tie together environment and religion and how one feeds into the other.
ReplyDeleteZoya Mufti
ReplyDeleteI really feel like I could relate to Norris’s appeal of the vast emptiness of the Dakota’s. I was raised in places surrounded by nature for the first ten years of my life and then spent the last nine years of my life living in cities. My first real connection to nature after years came when I was on a camping trip in South Africa. For the first time in a long time, I was back to the basics and began to notice all the things I had become immune to living in cities. Instead of falling asleep to sound of traffic, I was falling asleep to the noise of animals in the wild. I was finally able to see the simple beauty in the world which I think is what Norris felt she experienced when she was in the empty land of the Dakota’s. To appreciate the beauty of the environment I think the only way to fully do so is by immersing yourself in it.
I loved that Kathleen Norris began her piece describing how ugly the Dakotas and other barren lands appear to so many people. She references car rides through the vast 'wastelands', car rides in which people count down the minutes, bored out of their minds by the never-ending grasslands. She talks of the cold, harsh winters and the simplicity of life in her hometown. As students currently living in the nations capital, we are living lives quite different from the life about which she speak. We run from place to place, class to class, friend group to friend group, always with an agenda, a place to be, a thing to do. And while I often love that life, as it makes me feel productive and active, as if i am constantly accomplishing something and making the most of my youth, there is a part of me that misses my hometown the way Norris must have missed hers during her time in New York. I'm from Cleveland, Ohio. Though I don't live out in the countryside, not a far drive away exist a handful of grasslands, forests, rivers, and more of natures beautiful landscapes on which i frequently take my dogs. I love nature, I love the feeling of never-ending open land, or a never-ending forest. The feeling that you are the only one around, that no matter how loud you yell, no one will hear you. It is humbling, as it makes you feel small in the world, a concept we encountered repeatedly in Dillard's book. I think the simplicity of the Dakotas, a simplicity that can be found in many of natures vast expanses, is something that can cleanse your mind and soul like nothing else on the planet. Norris did a great job showing the miraculous beauty of the land that so many people see as mundane and rather ugly.
ReplyDeleteThis piece of literature broadened my horizons with respect to the juxtaposition of the city life vs. the country. Often times as Norris delineates living in the chaotic city life (such as Washington, D.C.) is suffocating and we often do neglect the beauty of nature. I felt as though when Norris stated that her "move was one that took [her] deep into the meaning of inheritance, as [she] had to try to fit [her]self into a complex network of long-established relationships" had a deeper meaning to it. Not only is she simply inheriting the physical estate, but she's also inheriting her family traditions of the Christian West and most importantly exploring human's inseparable relationship with nature.
ReplyDeleteKathleen Norris’s vivid description of the plains really captured my attention. She had a way of going about the plains, as if to almost make living on them exclusive and imperial to living in a more urban setting. Personally, even though i enjoyed the idea of the plains, I don't think living on them would be all that comfortable. Norris's ending with Andy saying, "this is where angels drown", gave me a very anxious feeling. The irony of the statement first grabbed my attention, angels don't die; however, in a more metaphorical context is Andy trying to say that one must be humble to his surroundings even in a place of such vast beauty as the plains?
ReplyDeleteThe author makes the plains sound as refreshing as a deep breath. I can understand why she decided to stay. It gives me hope that there exists a place where people are not in a rush all the time. I think that the environment around them relaxs them, makes them less anxious. It is hard not to feel a spiritual sensation in a field under the stars. I like that oral story telling still exists in Dakota. It is a releif that somewhere people can see that television shows are not always the best way to tell a story. It brought me back to years ago when my grandpa would tell us stories late at night in the summer on a screened in porch. I miss the russling of the trees and my grandpas rough voice. We would often find it hard to continue with the story because my grandpa, my two brothers and I couldn't stop laughing. I beleive that the quiet, relaxing beuty of the summer in a small village allowed for this story telling to take place. I would take this any day over some mindless sitcom.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Peter, in that Noris' beautiful description of the plains in Dakota definitely makes it easy to feel some sort of spiritual sensation. However, it seems ridiculous to me that moving ones location could instill a faith in a person that didn't exist before. The world is beautiful, and I am sure that the amazing stars and the breathtaking skies that Norris described are life-changing. However, there are many other explanations for that beauty. This description did, though, make me understand how peoples in the past would logically conjure up the ideas of gods to explain the natural beauty around them. Before reading this I never would have said it, but I bet visiting North/South Dakota would be beautiful and I can definitely understand why Norris decided to remain in her family's hometown.
ReplyDelete"The Beautiful Places" makes me think about how, aside from having to live and spend time there, standing in the middle of an "empty" field feels much different from standing on a city street. Both can make a person appreciate how small they are. But the city reminds me how small a part of humanity I am and the open field reminds me how small a part of the earth I am.
ReplyDeleteI understnad her choice to live and work there. What writer doesn't want to work surrounded by beauty and stark statements about life. The stories she reveres seem corospondingly bigger because they happened in a bigger place. I'd want to hear stories that span a few miles under a sky that is half your world rather than a few city blocks where the sky is removed and far distant. And there is something appealing about doing something that other people might call you crazy for.
What I took from "The Beautiful Places" was something similar to what I found in Dillard's text: a great respect for the earth as a sacred place of birth.
ReplyDeleteAn empty field, in this case, the kind of place Norris appreciates, is what Dillard would describe as land that was not yet "re-covered by the earth." Perhaps this is why the Dakotas hold such enchantment for Norris; they are closer to what was here at the beginning of the time than anything else. They haven't been covered by layer and layer of human civilization, as cities have been.
It seems that people like Norris, who live outside of bustling city-life and suburbia, have greater peace than ourselves. They, for example, do not feel the need to constantly be desperately following the news in an effort to feel important, as Dillard says most in our generation now do. Instead, people living on the plains are content to accept what they are: a passing generation that eventually will also be covered by earth.
Earlier in this thread the point was made that people in the city do not appreciate their surroundings. I think that Kathleen Norris is also arguing that city life is overwhelming, and that the people who live there are confused and unhappy. Although this may hold true for some city dwellers, I personally know people who love to live in an urban environment, and try to soak up as much of their surroundings as possible. For these friends of mine, living outside of a city seems slow and uneventful. While Norris may write about returning to the Dakotas, there are people with similar sentiments to Norris’ directed towards a city. It seems that the way our society is arranged, the cultural centers are where the most people live in a concentrated area. Because of this, urban areas are amazing places to view the wealth of human culture and creativity that happens every day. Whether or not natural beauty trumps human beauty depends on who is asking the question.
ReplyDeleteChasen Bender
ReplyDeleteI can sympathize with the actions of Kathleen Norris. Often times, I too feel as if the every day stimuli of a large city can be overwhelming and thoroughly intoxicating and I have often dwelled on the prospect of change of lifestyle by means of relocating to a place of residence that is free of the hustle and bustle of city life. There is an outlook of serenity and tranquility on life that can only exist once one has shed himself of the artificial prison of city life and has immersed himself in nature. The openness genuinely allows for an appreciation of not only nature but also one’s surroundings. This opportunity to step back from and not get caught up in everyday life presents a time for one to get in sync with yourself and your spirituality. I secretly desire to do the same thing as Kathleen one day.